Architect gathers input on new City Hall design

What does staff, city council and the public want and need in a new City Hall? That’s the question Mosaic Architecture is attempting to answer for the city of Whitefish.

Mosaic has surveyed city staff to determine their needs and last month met with the city hall steering committee. More meetings are set for later this month, including gathering public input.

The firm has created a survey to gauge priorities based on goals from previous public input, including an informal input session Mosaic held in late 2013 before being selected as the architect for the project.

“There are four topical areas they are looking at after meeting with the committee, city staff and council,” City Manager Chuck Stearns said. “(Mosaic) is tabulating those surveys now.”

The four areas include architecture, material and environment, history and vision, sustainability elements/benefit, and staff/community use. Those surveyed were asked to rate their top three goals in each category.

Under the architecture section, participants are asked to select from a number of design choices. One goal lists an exterior made of brick masonry as the preference and another suggests a mix of materials including glass and timber. Providing top-level views to the landscape around the city is another goal.

In the history and vision section, participants could chose to select the goal of including the siren in the design or incorporating a display of historic images into the lobby.

Stearns said Mosaic has met with each city department to determine needs. The architect is formulating rough square footage for each department based on needs and is considering where departments should be located within the building.

“There is no new drawings yet,” Stearns said. “We expect that to come later this fall.”

In addition, city staff and a citizen representative from the city hall committee will travel with Mosaic to Seattle later this month to look at different city halls. The group will visit four Seattle-area city halls similar in size what the new Whitefish City Hall will be and that were constructed in the last 10 years.

“The city staff will give us tours of their buildings and we will be able to talk with them about what they like and don’t like,” Stearns said. “We will be looking at the outside, but also the layout inside. We will get the chance to look at a modern city council chambers.”

A public design charratte is scheduled for July 29 and the two following days are set for more meetings with city staff and public input. The times and locations for the meetings have yet to be set.